Dutch Baroque Era Painter, ca.1628-1682 Ruysdael's favorite subjects are simple woodland scenes, similar to those of Everdingen and Hobbema. He is especially noted as a painter of trees, and his rendering of foliage, particularly of oak leaf age, is characterized by the greatest spirit and precision. His views of distant cities, such as that of Haarlem in the possession of the marquess of Bute, and that of Katwijk in the Glasgow Corporation Galleries, clearly indicate the influence of Rembrandt. He frequently painted coast-scenes and sea-pieces, but it is in his rendering of lonely forest glades that we find him at his best. The subjects of certain of his mountain scenes seem to be taken from Norway, and have led to the supposition that he had traveled in that country. We have, however, no record of such a journey, and the works in question are probably merely adaptations from the landscapes of Van Everdingen, whose manner he copied at one period. Only a single architectural subject from his brush is known--an admirable interior of the New Church, Amsterdam. The prevailing hue of his landscapes is a full rich green, which, however, has darkened with time, while a clear grey tone is characteristic of his seapieces. The art of Ruysdael, while it shows little of the scientific knowledge of later landscapists, is sensitive and poetic in sentiment, and direct and skillful in technique. Figures are sparingly introduced into his compositions, and such as occur are believed to be from the pencils of Adriaen van de Velde, Philip Wouwerman, and Jan Lingelbach. Unlike the other great Dutch landscape painters, Ruysdael did not aim at a pictorial record of particular scenes, but he carefully thought out and arranged his compositions, introducing into them an infinite variety of subtle contrasts in the formation of the clouds, the plants and tree forms, and the play of light. He particularly excelled in the painting of cloudscapes which are spanned dome-like over the landscape, and determine the light and shade of the objects. Goethe lauded him as a poet among painters, and his work shows some of the sensibilities the Romantics would later celebrate.  Related Paintings of Jacob van Ruisdael :. | Sailing vessels in a Fresh Breeze | The Great Forest | Jewish Cemetery | den stora skogen | View of het lj on a stormy Day |
Related Artists:
BREGNO, Antonio
Italian Early Renaissance Sculptor and Architect, active ca.1425-1457
Lodewijk Toeput
(ca.1550, Antwerp - 1605, Treviso), was a Mannerist landscape painter active in Italy. According to Karel van Mander who listed him as one of two painters from Northern Europe who he met in Venice, he was a good poet (rederijker) as well as a painter, who he thought came from Mechelen. Van Mander listed him with Dirck de Vries, a painter of kitchen pieces and fruit markets from Friesland. According to the RKD he was from Antwerp and spent most of his life in Treviso, Italy. He painted several historical allegories from the Bible and mythological themes from Metamorphoses.
Hendrick Avercamp
1585-1634 Dutch Hendrick Avercamp Galleries Hendrick Avercamp (bapt. January 27, 1585, Amsterdam - buried May 15, 1634, Kampen (Overijssel)) was a Dutch painter. Avercamp studied in Amsterdam with the Danish-born portrait painter Pieter Isaacks (1569-1625), and perhaps also with David Vinckbooms. In 1608 he moved from Amsterdam to Kampen in the province of Overijssel. Avercamp was deaf and was known as "de Stomme van Kampen" (the mute of Kampen). As one of the first landscape painters of the 17th-century Dutch school, he specialized in painting the Netherlands in winter. Avercamp's paintings are colorful and lively, with carefully crafted images of the people in the landscape. Avercamp's work enjoyed great popularity and he sold his drawings, many of which were tinted with water-color, as finished pictures to be pasted into the albums of collectors. Queen Elizabeth II has an outstanding collection of his works at Windsor Castle, England.